Goals

Our general goals are:

1. Study of the house and its spaces: typologies, denomination and use

We are very much interested in two different aspects. On the one hand, we want to carry out a diachronic analysis of one single house. The house is lived and therefore it is transformed, sometimes in just a few years. When we analyse what remains of it today, we must assume that we can only identify a minimal part of the whole history within its walls. On the other hand, we want to study the denomination and use of the spaces in the different geographical areas of study we have identified.

When speaking about denominations in this general goal, we want to delve into the need to carry out a glossary on the spaces of the house interiors. To do that, we start from “glosas”, difficult words that require an explanation, since the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language considers a glossary as a catalogue of words of the same discipline or field of study that are defined and commented. This is not merely a vocabulary or a list of words relating to the spaces of the house, but it is rather an attempt to define and structure the different meanings that a certain name has had. For this reason, the support of linguists who are experts in the language related to the house and the household goods of the time (like the ones we have in our research team) becomes essential.

2. Distribution of spaces. Emotions generated according to the social layer, age and gender

The study of houses through documents such as notary inventories enables us to rebuild the existing dwellings, their distribution of spaces, the household goods they contained and their functionality. We can recreate both the family and working life that took place inside them. We will therefore work on the denominations and their descriptions, taking into account the relationship with the rest of the house. There were undoubtedly particular aspects within the house throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries that defined specific areas assigned to women. Likewise, we have identified references to children in the household space, as well as to elderly or ill members of the family who had to move to a different floor, or cases when the house had to be adapted to accommodate them.

In this goal we deal with aspects such as emotional situations, or others related to submission or slavery regarding children, as well as other habits that are associated with different emotions, such as death. The domestic environment witnessed all kinds of events in the life cycle: births and deaths took place in the most “private” part of the house, the bedroom.

In the times we are analysing here, we must obviously not only make reference to the good Christians. We have experts in Arab and Jewish culture that will also allow us to examine the cultural complexity that took place during the fifteenth century, which was also present in various aspects of the daily life of the house throughout the sixteenth century.

3. Location and meaning of things in the house: household goods

Household goods included things that were inherited, although some were adapted and some were brand new, they were generally necessary for everyday life not only at home but at artisan’s workshops and small shops, and for certain activities that took place in the house. Some very detailed inventories available help us identify the location of things.

These objects tell us about their meaning and we therefore enter the world of emotions again. Let us think about the use of the domestic space for religious purposes that, through religious practice at home and especially by means of objects such as images or relics, suggested piety and devotion. In other cases, the objects make reference to the honour and nobility of a linage, that is why it was necessary to exhibit valuable pieces; while sometimes the use of a simple mortar and the way it was employed illustrates learnt habits and manners and evokes a cultural tradition that was taught by the ancestors.